PHP not processing in Nginx - php

Question

I have created a try_files directive that tries files in a different directory than the files are put in. I.e., if I visit www.example.com/home/main it will try the file /var/www/main/home/main.php. It works, but when I visit a page, it only shows the PHP source code and not the processed page. Here is my directive:
location ~ /home/ {
index main.php
try_files /main$uri.php #404;
location \.php {
fastcgi_pass php_server;
include fastcgi_params;
}
}
Any ideas on how I can get the page to process instead of just showing the PHP source?
Edit for additional information: I have tried making a location directive that looks like
location ~ /main/(.*)\.php {
fastcgi_pass php_server;
include fastcgi_params;
}
but this doesn't work either and the pages still show just the source code.

Answer 1

Of course it will show you source, since you don't have fastcgi_pass in your /home/ location.
Try this one:
location /home/ {
try_files /main$uri.php #static;
fastcgi_pass php_server;
include fastcgi_params;
}
location #static { }

Answer 2

EDIT: Actually the below is wrong - the last parameter is always used as a redirect if the file can't be found anywhere else in the try_files directive. In this example, it is hitting the .php file, but not be processed, so the #404 wasn't being hit. However, if no #404 example exists, then a failure to find the file would blow up anyways.
In the event that no file is found, an internal redirect to the last parameter is invoked [...]The last parameter is the fallback URI and must exist, or else an internal error will be raised.
source: http://wiki.nginx.org/HttpCoreModule#try_files
The #404 at the end of your try_files directive will send the php file to be parsed by a location #404 directive, not your php directive that uses fastcgi.
Try dropping the #404 or simple doing: try_files $uri /main$uri.php;